8 PEssIN: -EPIPHYLLOUS PLANTS OF JAMAICA 
Here one finds plants of many types growing on the soil; on these 
grow various plants as epiphytes and on these in turn grow other 
epiphytes. A remarkable diversity of epiphytic forms can be 
found on one plant, and some of the forms are wonderfully adapted 
to their epiphytic mode of life. These epiphytes occur on every 
patch of dead or living plant surface that receives even a moderate 
supply of light. One finds on a single leaf here such forms as 
algae, lichens, hepatics, mosses and, at times, even seed plants, 
not to mention occasional fungi and minute epiphyllous animals. 
It is rather strange that not a single fern prothallus has been 
found on any of the leaves of this region, though numerous spo- 
rangia were present and probably spores also on many different 
kinds of leaves. In Taste I, B, are listed the different kinds of 
epiphyllous forms found near Morce’s Gap. 
The climatic conditions of New Haven Gap do not differ 
markedly from those of Morce’s Gap. The temperature is nearly 
the same, ranging annually from 40.5° to 83° F., and the floor of 
the forest is constantly moist and shaded. Here again one finds 
the characteristic rain forest vegetation. The epiphyllous plants 
here are quite as abundant as at Morce’s Gap and consist mainly 
of algae, hepatics, and mosses. The leaves of the climbing plants 
of this locality are well inhabited by epiphyllous forms. The 
leaves of Clusia havetioides and of such ferns as Blechnum atten- 
uatum, Elaphoglossum latiyolium and Polypodium Phyllitidis serve 
most frequently as the substratum for epiphylls (see PLATE 1). 
A glance at TaBLE I, C, gives one a fair notion of the groups of 
epiphyllous plants found in the New Haven Gap region. 
Going northward from Morce’s Gap along the upper eastern 
slopes of the Mabess Valley the trail is particularly interesting as 
it presents a splendid view of the ravines. The crowns of the tree 
ferns carpet many side ravines of the valley. The huge lianes, 
the numerous orchids, the wild pines and the purplish filmy ferns 
mantle the branches of many trees and the species of Asplenium, 
Blechnum and Polypodium, along with the walking fern (Poly- 
stichum plaschnichianum), spread over the banks. One does not 
have to walk off the trail to find numerous epiphyllous plants. 
The upper leaves of many of the low trees on the Vinegar Hill 
Road are completely covered by them. Tasxe I, D, shows the - 
great variety of epiphyllous forms found in this region. 
